
THE ADDICTION FORMULA 165
talk about the smaller things in life, tell a story. If you
want to go big, explain, summarize, reveal. Go meta 1.
Power Words can be used to raise hype. Songwriters are
always on the lookout for these. Madonna did it with
the word “virgin”, Beyoncé did it with “ring” and Lady
Gaga did it with “paparazzi”. All of these are words ei-
ther evoke a strong emotional reaction (anything from
“you can’t say that! what are the kids gonna think?” to
“that sums up exactly how I feel”) or have a deeper
meaning (Beyoncé’s “ring” is a metaphor for marriage
and honesty). Power words can also reect the artist’s
image 2 or the zeitgeist 3.
Have you heard of Pareto’s principle? 20% of your ef-
forts produce 80% of your results. Your power words
are those 20%! People will forget the rest of your lyrics,
but power words prevail. So when writing lyrics, spend
1 Beyoncé - Single Ladies (verse: specic, chorus: explanation), Big Sean -
Beware (feat. Lil Wayne & Jhené Aiko, verses: specic, chorus: message)
2 “Single ladies” reads girl power, Gaga’s “poker face” is used syn-
onymously with playing hard to get
3 Katy Perry - I kissed a girl (LGBT movement), Lady Gaga - G.U.Y.
(bottom power, feminism), Beyoncé - XO (generation of internet relationships),
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag (high school), Bee Gees - Night Fever (disco era)